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Photographers Who Inspire: Natasha Huisman

Happy, happy Monday friends! Today's featured photographer is another sweet soul I have met via the wonderful IG!! She describes herself as, "Wife, Mama, Visual Storyteller." Go friend her on IG and take a look at her website now because you don't want to miss a second of her work. Her IG is a beautiful mix of client and personal work. She is superb in capturing everyday moments in such a wonderfully emotive way. And she is amazing at freelensing, I could scroll FOREVER!! So sit back and enjoy getting to know the amazingly talented... Natasha Huisman!!

What got you started in photography?

I received a Crayola Flash 110 film camera as a present when I was about 8 or 9 and took it everywhere, snapping everything (my photos were mostly dark and total crap though haha). From there I just gradually upgraded my camera throughout the years to eventually buy my first DSLR right after high school (which I used as my main camera for a good ten years!) I just never imagined any other path in life since getting that Crayola Flash.

What three words describe your photographic style?

I feel like it's changed a lot over the years but right now I'd say Personal, Emotional, & Colourful.

What’s your favorite compositional technique?

I'm not sure how much I actually pay attention to which compositional techniques I'm using when I take a photo, it's sort of second nature… perhaps I should may more attention! I guess I like working with perspective and selective focus a lot now that I think of it, and light and shadows.

Tell me a bit about your biz! Are you only personal work, or a mix of personal and client?

I don't know if I ever had an official start date for my business but I started out with friend's weddings and then kids and families. I had studio lights I bought from school and struggled for awhile with figuring out my style and branding with being a "studio photographer"… I thought maybe it would be fun to be a kids fashion photographer, so that was a goal for awhile. I did more weddings and even boudoir but never really felt passionate about it until I had kids and discovered the lifestyle photography community through instagram! Once I learned my passion is for REAL life, now I love to capture my own family and client's families throughout the stages of life in a way that depicts realness! I'm a sucker for the raw and emotional and I am inspired daily countless times by the IG community of other photographers who feel the same and show that in the way they run their businesses as well. I do also love adventure and documentary photography and originally thought that was the route to go but it doesn't seem the right direction, not right now anyway.

How would you describe your ultimate dream shoot or personal project?

I think my dream shoot would be with a family who is adventurous and in love with God, life, each other and we would go somewhere epic like the mountains or some dreamy landscape… Of course the light would be that perfect golden hour light… I also am really getting into birth photography so I might die and go to heaven if I found someone who was willing to give birth in some beautiful setting… I've seen it so it's not it's a long shot but not totally unrealistic! I would also love to document a mission trip of some sort.

What’s one of the most interesting experiences you’ve ever had in a session or personal project?

That would be my most recent birth session. It was actually my first ever birth session and it went so differently than I expected! It was an over 30 hour labor for the poor mama and being new to this (and having short labours myself) I rushed to hospital before she was even 6cm dilated. I spent the night sleeping in half hour intervals on the waiting room chairs anxiously worrying I would somehow miss it. It was still a long while after that and I had made myself exhausted by the time she was born. It was quite the experience and I learned a lot from it too!

I'm not sure I have a favourite, every new image I make that I'm proud of is my new favourite! One session that's a fav of mine though is when my son turned 3 just him and I went to a historical train station nearby. He was really into trains then and since his baby sister was born we hadn't been able to spend much time one on one so this was a special day to me. It's not an overly interesting or awesome image, just a simple portrait of him making a silly face with a bit of wind in his hair. But it's the memory for me that makes it special and definitely one of my favourites.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to get started in photography?

My advice would be ignore what more experienced photographers have to say until you are confident with your work and feel good about it. I think there are a lot of good mentors and people to encourage you but even the ones we think are "the best of the best" can be hard on themselves and then the ones just starting out can look at that and think.. well their work is amazing.. so there is no hope for me! I used to think it's wrong and lame to copy others but actually nothing is really original at this point and you're never going to learn by stubbornly going it alone. So if you take a few of your favourite artists who's work you admire and follow along with how they develop and their editing style, how they do things, that is a good way to learn. You could even look for a mentor this way if you really wanted to.

If you weren’t a photographer, what would you be?

Honestly there is nothing else I wanted to be. I'm not a career person and would love more than anything to just stay at home with my kids and be a homemaker! I guess I would paint or sew or something but I'm not much of a team player so I think being an entrepreneur is the tough road I've always been meant for.

Oh I just love her, don't you? How amazing Natasha to have documented a birth and 30 hours at that!! What a labor of LOVE!! And I absolutely love Natasha's advice to new photographers, I could not agree more!! Thank you so much Natasha for sharing a little bit about you and your beautiful work!!

What about you guys? Anyone have a favorite image or any advice you would give to new photographers? Comment below!!